Gun Show
November 2, 2009 4 Comments
Headed out to the gun show on Saturday morning with a couple of friends. This was my first one in years. I just don’t buy guns. I am lucky enough to have all the ones I need and I find it hard to justify buying new guns regularly when I would usually rather spend my money on non-firearm hunting gear. But I needed a couple spare magazines for one of my handguns, so I thought I would hope for a bargain.
Gun shows are pretty fun if you A) Like guns B) Are a conservative and C) All of the above. I saw the prerequisite amount of anti-Obama propaganda, some of which was witty and some which was just kind of dumb. The crowd itself was 99.9% male, which makes for an interesting dynamic. Everyone was well-mannered, but you get the impression that if the stuff hit the fan there were a lot of guys in there that would love an excuse to open fire on the bad guys. And woe to the bad guys.
I had a talk with one of my friends on the way there and I think our consensus opinion was that gun show background checks are not a big deal. Yes, I know that when the Russians invade they will use gun registrations to round up potential insurgents, but I guess I just trust NORAD to keep that from happening. I continue to believe that gun owners as a group are some of the most law-abiding and loyal citizens we have. So we need to clean up our own backyard if we want to keep knee-jerk legislation from causing us grief. Read my old post on trafficking. That is where the problem lies. Fix that and a lot of our problems with guns go away.
I wasn’t able to locate the spare magazines (anyone know a good place to get some spares for a Smith & Wesson 2214?) I did buy some cheap flashlights and pocket knives for the emergency kits I am putting together for my car and the wife’s (more on my go-bag in a later post).
So as a shooting sports enthusiastic liberal I should keep my Obama ’08 wear out of the arena at the gun show? Wouldn’t that sort of enhance the stereo type?
And just for the record I am disturbed that you may have any Obama ’08 apparell.
I don’t think you would have any more to worry about than wearing a Vikings jersey to a Green Bay game.
I’ve been to a few gun shows and found some good range gear but my particular niche is old school black powder which has been consigned almost entirely to the internet these days with little too no selection in sporting goods stores or shows.
People who wear purple in the most holy Lambeau Field deserve bad things happening to them.
Anyway… a friend of mine and I go to gun shows fairly often even when we aren’t planning to buy anything (although it’s fun to try and goad each other into buying) just for the enjoyment of browsing. I mean, we enjoy walking around looking at the stuff for sale: Dude, it’s a Barrett! Dude, it’s a gold Desert Eagle! Dude, that guy’s a Class-III dealer with full auto stuff! Dude, check out this sword! And you figure for $8 admission and you spend about two hours there, you’ve stretched your entertainment budget farther than you would going to a movie theater.
Plus, for some calibers – especially the 7.62×54 and 7.62×39 I need – you can get better prices on ammo than you can at any store. Prices on guns themselves, eh, yeah, you can find deals, you just might have to go through a bunch of tables. I’ve picked up two rifles at the shows, spend about $550 for the two.
And you know, I’ve actually seen somebody fail a background check at a gun show? Was actually kind of interesting. The dealer took a sheet of paper, wrote something down on it, handed it to the guy, and said basically, “That’s your background check number, if you want to know why you failed, call the State Police and give them that number.”
And at least here in Hampton Roads, the population at the show isn’t ever more than about 80% male.
I tend to skip past the booths with the propaganda, though…